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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Young Idiots & Their Enablers Open Thread: Circle Gaming

Young Idiots & Their Enablers Open Thread: Circle Gaming

by Anne Laurie|  December 23, 20196:16 pm| 76 Comments

This post is in: Military, Open Threads, Assholes

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The US Naval Academy and West Point say an investigation found that the hand gestures seen at the Army-Navy game were part of the "circle game" and not a white supremacist symbol https://t.co/o3Igpj2uGP pic.twitter.com/xYHhenG9Kx

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 20, 2019

I hereby dedicate this GIF of the “rolling dice” hand gesture to the US Naval Academy pic.twitter.com/ogonXtOoCy

— Merlin’s Imp (@infuscios) December 20, 2019

Okay, who is getting punched if you are doing it for a TV camera then? pic.twitter.com/j164uKnlzS

— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 21, 2019

Turns out, it was option four. Better than the other three. (Still, stupid. Don't play kids' games on national TV, especially when they could be misinterpreted.) https://t.co/eO9jxPCbpT

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 20, 2019

“Circle game.” pic.twitter.com/G2vRn1HX9T

— Benji King (@BenjiKing13) December 21, 2019

Hi, former military and West Point cadet here. Even if this were the “circle game”, the point of it is a male getting another male to look in the direction of their penis and then punching them for looking.

So, even if the intent isn’t white supremacy, it’s certainly homophobia. https://t.co/LyaG7JCgga

— Charlotte Clymer?????? (@cmclymer) December 20, 2019

We… are… SPARTANS! (But the no-homo kind, okay?)

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Reader Interactions

76Comments

  1. 1.

    hells littlest angel

    December 23, 2019 at 6:22 pm

    If it’s about punching people for no reason, why not call it the knockout game?

  2. 2.

    japa21

    December 23, 2019 at 6:24 pm

    It may just be me, but I don’t think that hand is below the waist.

  3. 3.

    Mathguy

    December 23, 2019 at 6:25 pm

    Circle jerks.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    December 23, 2019 at 6:26 pm

    So much for maintaining military discipline.

  5. 5.

    lamh36

    December 23, 2019 at 6:26 pm

    smh…the games young racist white folks play…sigh.

    Anyhoo…how’s about some laughter.

    ICYMI: Eddie Murphy Monologue – SNL https://youtu.be/fK0rWI0DwG4 via @YouTube

    Weekend Update: Gumby Returns – SNL https://youtu.be/uNKL9MMbjNg via @YouTube

  6. 6.

    jharp

    December 23, 2019 at 6:26 pm

    So what’s the deal with the pet calendar?

    I can’t find any information other than photo submissions are closed.

    Thanks in advance.

  7. 7.

    lamh36

    December 23, 2019 at 6:29 pm

    @lamh36: More Eddie Murphy on SNL ICYMI:

    Holiday Baking Championship – SNL https://youtu.be/tebBj42fC3k via @YouTube

    North Pole News Report – SNL https://youtu.be/uBqvPvMfr0E via @YouTube #SantaKnew

  8. 8.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 23, 2019 at 6:30 pm

    OT Genocide is unfolding in Uttar Pradesh under Modi’s handpicked Chief Minister, Ajay Singh Bisht who wears saffron like a monk and calls himself Yogi Adityanath. Most of the deaths reported during the protests that have roiled India since the last week have come from this one state. Muslims are being hunted down, their businesses burned down. Protesters are being shot at. There is an internet blackout in much of Uttar Pradesh.

    Modi did this in Gujarat in 2002. BJP and Sangh handles are openly gloating about this on Twitter. I have been tweeting about it and am writing up another post for AL to front page.

  9. 9.

    Miss Bianca

    December 23, 2019 at 6:31 pm

    @lamh36: Yeah, pretty sweet.

    Even funnier than Eddie dressed up as Gumby was watching those other guys lose it. It’s like, “fuck the fourth wall, man, I’m sitting next to EDDIE FUCKING MURPHY in a Gumby suit!”

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    December 23, 2019 at 6:32 pm

    @lamh36: One of the funniest “new character” sketches was the Home for the Holidays sketch

    ICMYI: Home for the Holidays – SNL https://youtu.be/VxVXYp2KIeE via @YouTube

  11. 11.

    eclare

    December 23, 2019 at 6:33 pm

    So the Christchurch murderer was just playing the circle game when he made that signal in court?  Who knew!

  12. 12.

    eclare

    December 23, 2019 at 6:35 pm

    @Miss Bianca: They knew they were no match, so why not enjoy?

  13. 13.

    Yarrow

    December 23, 2019 at 6:38 pm

    I wonder if anyone got to those cadets’ social media accounts prior to the Navy cleaning them up. I bet there would be some interesting stuff in there.

  14. 14.

    patrick II

    December 23, 2019 at 6:38 pm

    When I was in Navy many years ago, the circle game was a game we often played on midnight watch, that and arm-wrestling, and a couple stupid time killers. When we played it there was no below-the-waist rule. If you looked at the other guy’s hand, you got punched in the shoulder. Actually true, no racism involved. sorry.
    The game is still around. I saw Jennifer Lawrence talking about playing it on the set of Hunger Games.

  15. 15.

    debbie

    December 23, 2019 at 6:40 pm

    @lamh36:

    I did not think anyone could beat the show that Dave Chappell hosted, but Eddie sure did!

  16. 16.

    Chyron HR

    December 23, 2019 at 6:41 pm

    @patrick II:

    “I-It’s the circle game!  J-Law plays it!  It’s totally unrelated to our well-documented worship of Donald Trump and public statements that this hand sign represents our white nationalist sentiments!”

  17. 17.

    Anne Laurie

    December 23, 2019 at 6:42 pm

    @eclare: So the Christchurch murderer was just playing the circle game when he made that signal in court?

    I assume they’re letting us know who they are using ASL:  Hey, world, I’m an assh*le!

  18. 18.

    debbie

    December 23, 2019 at 6:42 pm

    @patrick II:

    With that exact same gesture, the one that just happens to be a White Power sign?

  19. 19.

    Searcher

    December 23, 2019 at 6:46 pm

    @patrick II: There’s a bit of a deplorable gap.

    Decent people don’t want to be associated with scumbags, while scumbags have no morals.

    So scumbags can take anything they want and make it theirs for the sake of antagonizing decent people, and we can’t really fight back.  It’s been 80 years since anyone could wear a Charlie Chaplin mustache.

    We used to have some respite in things that are seen as too humiliating for manly men to be associated with, like bright pink and Hello Kitty, but given the depravity and meanness of the current generation of trolls, I don’t think those are safe if a troll got their troll up.

  20. 20.

    delk

    December 23, 2019 at 7:25 pm

    Well, okay then.

  21. 21.

    patrick II

    December 23, 2019 at 7:25 pm

    @Chyron HR:

    I can’t read their minds, and neither can you.  You know none of them.  They may be white racists, they may be playing a stupid game as we did.  I don’t think young officers at the beginning of their career would be doing that on TV where they can be identified, but it wouldn’t be the first time in my life I was wrong.

  22. 22.

    Humdog

    December 23, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Thank you for these horror show updates. Do you see the state violence spreading to other parts of India?  I simply cannot understand the drive to wipe out neighbors over being different. Is there anyone Modi might listen to to get him to stop this?

  23. 23.

    lamh36

    December 23, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    @lamh36: And ICMYI Lizzo, the musical guest performance…here ya go.

    Here’s Lizzo singing two of her biggest hits from her Grammy nominated album:

    First: Truth Hurts (look for the homage to blues icon Sister Rosetta Sharpe!).

    Truth Hurts (Live) – SNL https://youtu.be/cstggp_dwZ8 via @YouTube

    Here is her 2nd performance. Her single: Good As Hell will a holiday/NOLA bounce music twist!

    Good as Hell (Live) – SNL https://youtu.be/HuENwwT5rSg via @YouTube

    Go forth and twll ur kids/grandkids/greatgrandkids that you know that singer Lizzo!

  24. 24.

    patrick II

    December 23, 2019 at 7:34 pm

    @Searcher:

     

    So scumbags can take anything they want and make it theirs for the sake of antagonizing decent people,

    Yeah, it was just a stupid game, and now you can’t tell. James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence play the circle game.

    I forgot to say, if you look but get your index finger through it before they can close it, you can punch the “circler” instead, as Jennifer does to McAvoy in the video.

  25. 25.

    Chris T.

    December 23, 2019 at 7:36 pm

    I started a bit of posting about electric vehicle chargers in a thread that’s probably dead now (B-J went off line for me and this is two threads later). (See https://balloon-juice.com/2019/12/23/you-cant-make-this-shit-up-3/#comment-7522592) Should I continue it here?

  26. 26.

    JPL

    December 23, 2019 at 7:38 pm

    No matter what the Academies say students embarrassed the institutions for a prank.    Good luck justifying that.

  27. 27.

    patrick II

    December 23, 2019 at 7:38 pm

    @Chris T.:

     
    No. We need to continue to discuss the circle game.

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 7:39 pm

    I think it’s well past time to rebrand that as the Fucking-knee-me-in-the-crotch-as-hard-as-you-can gesture.

  29. 29.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 7:41 pm

    @lamh36: “shit”. Oops! ?

  30. 30.

    FelonyGovt

    December 23, 2019 at 7:43 pm

    @lamh36: OMG that holiday baking sketch was hysterical.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 7:46 pm

    @FelonyGovt: Those roofs on the castle turrets where quite ummmm…..penisy.

  32. 32.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 23, 2019 at 7:46 pm

    Am I the only one who’s been having trouble with the site? It seems to be working ok now, but I went away for a while because I kept getting error messages.

  33. 33.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 7:47 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Something in the chain of command was being a bonehead earlier.

  34. 34.

    lamh36

    December 23, 2019 at 7:47 pm

    @scobie

    FollowingFollowing @scobie

    Merry Christmas from Sussexes! Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan opted for an environmentally friendly e-card this year, sharing a new family portrait with friends, family, colleagues and charities (including all their patronages). Photo taken by @Janina Gavankar, ©SussexRoyal.

    https://twitter.com/scobie/status/1209258057567539201

  35. 35.

    Ella in New Mexico

    December 23, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    @lamh36: Lizzo was one of a few fantastic artists who kept me sane this summer.

    Not because of a relationship break up, but because of a whole lot of equally painful, unexpected life events that knocked me off balance emotionally and forced me to take stock in what my priorities were.

    Guess what? I found out it’s simply impossible to cry if you crank up the sound of  “Good as Hell” or “Juice”. :-D

    .

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    December 23, 2019 at 7:50 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor

    Not by any means only you. More hosting/server errors/outages, which affect everyone.

    “Help us, WaterGirl, you’re our only hope.”

  37. 37.

    Lapassionara

    December 23, 2019 at 7:51 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: This is horrifying. Is there anything we can do to stop this?

  38. 38.

    tobie

    December 23, 2019 at 7:53 pm

    There was this article in the Military Times about the problems with white nationalism in the military in February:

    Nearly one in four troops polled say they have seen examples of white nationalism among their fellow service members, and troops rate it as a larger national security threat than Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a new Military Times poll.

    It also contained the nugget that 5% of the survey takers complained they weren’t asked about “black nationalism”:

    Nearly five percent of those polled left comments complaining that groups like Black Lives Matter — whose stated goal is to raise awareness of violence and discrimination towards black people — weren’t included among the options for threats to national security.

    Hard to feel comfortable with the attitudes in the military at all and it’s deeply disturbing that the Senate stripped language requiring the military to vet for white nationalist sympathies in new recruit.

  39. 39.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 23, 2019 at 7:58 pm

    @Humdog: The protests have been peaceful in almost all other places, protesters are asserting pride in the idea of a democratic and secular India, its flag and its constitution. They don’t want BJP to redefine those ideals.

    Here is a protest in a town (small by Indian standards) in Tamil Nadu singing the national anthem return by Tagore, which is in Bengali which belongs to different family than the language of the state Tamil.

    There were many other such heartening scenes all over India. UP was one of the exceptions.

  40. 40.

    chopper

    December 23, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    i guess we can reverse the game and just punch the shit out of garbage people that make that hand sign.

  41. 41.

    Robmassing

    December 23, 2019 at 8:01 pm

    https://youtu.be/DGHjHU_Z8d8

  42. 42.

    Evil_Paul

    December 23, 2019 at 8:02 pm

    _sigh_. Yeah, we got the same game in the Canadian Armed Forces. Up here it’s called “Ball Gazer.”

    Well, fair enough. These clowns got the one freebie. Next bunch get charged. If they want to complain that this isn’t fair? Hey, you’re the ones who’re playing a game where you trap somebody into doing something by accident and getting punched.

    Can’t really complain about fair. But if you want to I’d say go whine to the White Supremacists.

  43. 43.

    oatler.

    December 23, 2019 at 8:02 pm

    @chopper:

    We’re captive on the carousel of time
    We can’t return we can only look behind
    From where we came
    And go round and round and round
    In the circle game

  44. 44.

    Ten Bears

    December 23, 2019 at 8:07 pm

    Ahm still learnin’ American Sign Language (ASL), but am given to understand it means asshole.

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    December 23, 2019 at 8:09 pm

    @patrick II:

    If you’re saying that if I see anyone making that circle gesture, I can punch them and say, “What? I thought we were playing the circle game!” then I’m cool with that.

  46. 46.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 23, 2019 at 8:09 pm

    @Lapassionara: @Humdog: India wants to America’s back office and its IT supplier. Also Modi supporters are conscious of the country’s reputation in western eyes. I think these two pressure points can be used to make the BJP government at the Center to behave to some extent.

    Thirdly we can put pressure on Google (YouTube), Twitter and Whatsapp (Facebook) to police their platforms and stop BJP from using it as Radio Rwanda.

    Meanwhile, I am personally reporting handles that promote rape, murder and carnage.

    If you are on Twitter or other social media amplify what is happening in India, the internet bans are a strategy to keep the world in the dark.

  47. 47.

    JoyceH

    December 23, 2019 at 8:11 pm

    As I understand it, the okay sign is  white power signal if you hold the hand up, facing outward, with last three fingers spread. Then the spread fingers form a W and the circled fingers plus hand and wrist make the P. Held down or sideways, last fingers together and curved, I’d give the kids the benefit of the doubt and agree they’re playing a stupid game. Playing a stupid game on national television isn’t very smart, but I suspect the ones doing it have been scared out of their wits and surely know better now.

  48. 48.

    Yarrow

    December 23, 2019 at 8:11 pm

    @Mnemosyne:  Maybe the Navy was being all stealthy and setting it up so when someone punches someone making that gesture they can get off with a, “Hey, I thought we were playing the circle game.”

  49. 49.

    patrick II

    December 23, 2019 at 8:13 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

     
    Those are the rules, so go ahead. Unless they are bigger than you.

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    December 23, 2019 at 8:16 pm

    @patrick II:

    I’m small and wily — I can usually run away pretty fast.

    Plus no one will believe them if they say that the nice middle-aged white lady punched them in the balls.

  51. 51.

    Jay

    December 23, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    @patrick II:

    entire class of graduating WV Department of Corrections students gave the Nazi Salute for their class picture.

    3 Nazi Instructors got fired, the Class Photo and names got scrubbed,

    ”investigation” all over in less than a day.

    “We” are supposed to “trust” that an entire Organization that was “infiltrated” by Nazis, into senior positions of responsibility, found and fired all the Nazis in one day,

    and that an entire class of “future” Prison Guards, are just too “naive” to know what the Sieg Heil salute stands for and means,

    in the same state that happily hosted the “Unite the Right” torch parade, Nazi riot and killing sprees,

  52. 52.

    patrick II

    December 23, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

     
    No! Not the balls! — the shoulder. I won’t be responsible for your safety for ball punching.
    By the way, I was pretty good at that game. I just watched the McAvoy – Jennifer Lawerence video of them playing and I never looked at J-LO’s circled hand once.

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    December 23, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    @Yarrow:

    I mean, it seems like it would solve the problem pretty quickly. Otherwise, they’d have to publicly admit that they WEREN’T just “playing the circle game” and were making a white supremacist gesture on purpose. It’s win/win as far as I can tell.

  54. 54.

    Mnemosyne

    December 23, 2019 at 8:22 pm

    @patrick II:

    I’m 5’2”. My hand might slip. Oh well. ?

  55. 55.

    patrick II

    December 23, 2019 at 8:26 pm

    @Jay:

     
    If you are telling me that a bunch of country WV prison guards are of the same quality as the cadets at West Point and the Naval Academy, that is your right.
    JLO and McAvoy while your at it. There can be no innocents.

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    December 23, 2019 at 8:27 pm

    Bunch of dweebs and jerks who never outgrew Punch Bug (which is also a distressingly stupid ‘game’ whose amusement value continues to elude me).

  57. 57.

    Jay

    December 23, 2019 at 8:27 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    they have shut down telecom, ( phone, internet and cable) in Assam.

    I am retweeting every supportive voice for the protests and news I find.

  58. 58.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 23, 2019 at 8:34 pm

    @Jay: Assam is ground zero for the NRC nonsense.

    On the good news front. BJP loses yet another state, Jharkhand went to polls and threw the BJP government out.

  59. 59.

    Jim Bales

    December 23, 2019 at 9:20 pm

    One response to this is to point out that these young men are training to be leaders.

     

    LeadersOne response to this is to point out that these young men are training to be leaders.

    Leaders understand that their actions may have unintended consequences.

    Leaders accept responsibility for the unintended consequences of their actions.

    In this case, these young leaders-in-training discovered that they are game happy unintended consequence of making them look like racists.

    We do these young leaders a disservice by not holding them responsible for those unintended consequences.

    We do these young leaders (and the people they are to lead) a disservice by not holding them responsible for those unintended consequences.

    Best,

    Jim

  60. 60.

    Leslie

    December 23, 2019 at 9:20 pm

    As one of the tweets points out, the whole point of that homophobic “game” is to get to punch someone. So the cadets making that gesture on tv were going to … reach through the screen and punch the audience?

    Total BS.

  61. 61.

    Miss Bianca

    December 23, 2019 at 9:23 pm

    @FelonyGovt: I lost it when Eddie unveiled his cake, I have to admit.

  62. 62.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 9:33 pm

    @Leslie: LOL Never thought of it that way.

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 9:35 pm

    @NotMax: My generation called that Slug Bug when we were kids.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 9:38 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Plus no one will believe them if they say that the nice middle-aged white lady punched them in the balls. 

    That’s what I thought when you started talking about punching Nazis’ nuts!  “Who?  Me?”

  65. 65.

    zhena gogolia

    December 23, 2019 at 9:39 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Me too. This afternoon and this evening.

  66. 66.

    Dan B

    December 23, 2019 at 9:50 pm

    @Chris T.:

    I think the more interesting topics about Electric Vehicles are about VW, making up for their diesel mileage scandal, are developing chargers that Nissan Leafs cannot use.  And the issue of apartment dwellers in lower income neighborhoods having charger deserts.  Used Leafs can be had for $8,000 but our 80% minority part of town has only one charger at the far north end.  Liberal Green Seattle governed by the well off and blind to climate social justice issues.

  67. 67.

    Bill Arnold

    December 23, 2019 at 9:50 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:
    (1) Couple of things; when a government shuts down the internet in a region in India, how total is the shutdown? (I’ve never played with off-grid/off-cell internet connections, such as RV satellite internet; such connections could be shared with a a hotspot + extenders to get news out.)
    (2) The troll J. B. in your previous post/thread, you later said that you found them posting on richard spencer’s site? Link (or instructions)?

  68. 68.

    painedumonde

    December 23, 2019 at 9:55 pm

    A few less “gentlemen” will be officers in a few years. Be gone.

  69. 69.

    Dan B

    December 23, 2019 at 9:56 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I’m gobsmacked by the BJP dogma that believes they can force two hundred million people to leave India.  Do they believe that they can do something short of the murder of millions?

  70. 70.

    painedumonde

    December 23, 2019 at 9:56 pm

    A few less “gentlemen” will be officers in a few years. Begone.

     

    Dang, refresh rate….

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 23, 2019 at 10:01 pm

    @Leslie:

    So the cadets making that gesture on tv were going to … reach through the screen and punch the audience?

    I think the odds are that was a white supremacy gesture.  However, I *do* know how juvenile assholes think, unfortunately.  If it was the circle game, the cadet is thinking ‘Hur hur I made the TV audience play this game about looking at penises.’  It doesn’t have to make sense or be a particularly complete thought.

  72. 72.

    cintibud

    December 23, 2019 at 10:05 pm

    @Jay: WV is West Virginia. The Nazis were in Charlottesville, Virginia. However that just might be because there are no large cities in W

    ETA – WV is also the home of our blog host, so they have that going for it.

  73. 73.

    J R in WV

    December 23, 2019 at 10:06 pm

    @Jay:

    I’m not going to defend the Department of Corrections here in West Virginia… but when you say:

    … that an entire class of “future” Prison Guards, are just too “naive” to know what the Sieg Heil salute stands for and means,

    in the same state that happily hosted the “Unite the Right” torch parade, Nazi riot and killing sprees…

    I’m going to correct your public ignorance. WEST Virginia is NOT the same state that “happily hosted the “Unite the Right” torch parade”… That was in Old Virginia, that seceded from the Union back when the Slave Owners were starting the Civil War.

    West Virginia then seceded from Virginia during the Civil War. And the Nazi Torch parade was at Jefferson’s University, over in Old Virginia… NOT in WEST By Gawd Virginia.

    Also not going to defend the white supremacists here in WV, because we have some of those despicable varmits right here. But I will bet that there are more of them in Old Virginia than in West Virginia.”

  74. 74.

    J R in WV

    December 23, 2019 at 10:50 pm

    Plus, even here in WV Corrections Officers are pretty much the bottom of the barrel in terms of hiring.

    So, yes, those youngsters could have been totally unaware of the significance of the Nazi salute, barely aware that there were German Nazis back in their great granddad’s day. Country boys — totally unaware of that salute and it’s meaning today.

  75. 75.

    phdesmond

    December 23, 2019 at 10:58 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: i’m glad you’re keeping us informed.  thank you.

  76. 76.

    EthylEster

    December 24, 2019 at 11:46 am

    I am in favor of re-purposing it as a “I am an asshole” sign.

    And the double < sign to the left of the screen keeps getting in the way when I try to edit a comment on the extreme left of the comment box.

    IOW the << overlaps the comment textbox. Like now. This line of text is at the same level at the <<.  I think the << “control” should be narrower. Or the left edge of the comment box  could be moved to the right a bit.

    Yes, one can avoid this by scrolling but IMO this falls into the category of overlapping screen elements.

     

    Ugh..another dead thread.

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